Beyond The Lights - 2014 - 6/10
Musical / drama / love story.
Off duty cop, working security for singing sensation, halts her lame suicide attempt.
Will Fate draw them together? Will they fall in love?
Neither seem to be living their own lives, but instead follow “the plan” of their parents.
Nice quota of tunes. Lip syncing by the star, and MTV montages with chart toppers.
What struck me by the end was that the lead characters had more or less switched roles and destinies.
I don’t think that was deliberate, either.
Had trouble with the love story, too.
Jodorowsky’s Dune - 2013 - 6/10
Documentary about the failed attempt to film Herbert;’s “Dune” by outsider filmmaker, Alejandro Jodorowsky, in 1975 - years before the 1984 Lynch version.
The pitch, which was a telephone sized book, was fully story-boarded by French artist Mœbius.
Other members of the creative team included the little known Giger, Chris Foss and Dan O’Bannon.
The tentative cast included David Carradine, Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, Salvador Dali, Gloria Swanson.
Missing anyone? Oh yeah, music by Magma and Pink Floyd.
Numerous interviewees discuss conception, building the foundation, then the collapse of the project.
Jodorowsky, while not bitter, does blame corporate Hollywood and lack of artistic vision.
Problem is, the 70s was one of the most experimental and free-wheeling decades in film.
What they balked at was a 15 hour film by an unknown director whose three films were well beyond the outer fringe of the arthouse sphere.
Arguments about how great Jodorowsky’s
Dune would have been fail to fully factor the director’s past track record. Simply put, this would not have been
Star Wars.
The creative team went on to acclaim with
Alien and beyond.
One might assume I did not like this. No. This is constantly interesting, I simply found too many of the presumptions flawed.